Imagination (magazine)

Imagination was an American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in October 1950 by Raymond Palmer's Clark Publishing Company. The magazine was sold almost immediately to Greenleaf Publishing Company, owned by William Hamling, who published and edited it from the third issue, February 1951, for the rest of the magazine's life. Hamling launched a sister magazine, Imaginative Tales, in 1954; both ceased publication at the end of 1958 in the aftermath of major changes in US magazine distribution due to the liquidation of American News Company.

The magazine was more successful than most of the numerous science fiction titles launched in the late 1940s and early 1950s, lasting a total of 63 issues. Despite this success, the magazine had a reputation for low-quality space opera and adventure fiction, and modern literary historians refer to it in dismissive terms. Hamling consciously adopted an editorial policy oriented toward entertainment, asserting in an early issue that "science fiction was never meant to be an educational tour de force".[1] Few of the stories from Imagination have received recognition, but it did publish Robert Sheckley's first professional sale, "Final Examination", in the May 1952 issue, and also printed fiction by Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein and John Wyndham.

Contents

The first issue of Other Worlds, Imagination's stable-mate at Clark Publishing

American science fiction magazines first appeared in the 1920s with the appearance of Amazing Stories, a pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback. The beginnings of science fiction as a separately marketed genre can be traced to this time, and by the end of the 1930s the field was undergoing its first boom,[2] but World War II and its attendant paper shortages led to the demise of several titles. By the late 1940s the market began to recover again.[3] From a low of eight active magazines in 1946, the field expanded to 20 in 1950, and a further 22 had commenced publication by 1954.[4]Imagination was launched in the middle of this publishing boom.

The groundwork was laid in 1947, when Clark Publishing, the company that would publish the first issue of Imagination, was incorporated in Evanston, Illinois, by Raymond Palmer. He worked for Ziff-Davis as the editor of Amazing Stories and did not leave until the end of 1949, but he launched two magazines under the Clark name before that date: Fate, in the spring of 1948, and Other Worlds, the first issue of which was dated November 1949.[5] Both of these magazines listed their editor as "Robert N. Webster", a pseudonym Palmer adopted while he was still at Ziff-Davis because of the conflict of interest. The second issue of Other Worlds reported that Webster and Palmer were going to edit together; by the third issue, dated March 1950, the pretense had been dropped and although there was no masthead listing the editor, the editorial was simply signed "Rap" (for "Raymond A. Palmer"). At the 1949 World Science Fiction Convention in Cincinnati, held over the weekend of 3–5 September, Palmer announced that he had left Ziff-Davis and described his plans for Clark Publishing. He also met and hired Bea Mahaffey, a 21-year-old science fiction fan attending her first convention, as his assistant editor.[6][7]

With Fate and Other Worlds launched, Palmer began to plan for a new magazine, to be called Imagination. Material for the first two issues had been assembled by mid-1950, but in the early summer Palmer fell down his basement stairs and was left paralyzed from the waist down. While he was hospitalized, much of the work of editing both Other Worlds and Imagination was done by Mahaffey, who coped well, despite her inexperience. An assistant, Marge Budwig Saunder, was hired to read the slush pile and help out. The magazine's first issue, dated October 1950 on a planned bi-monthly schedule, appeared on news stands 1 August 1950. However, in September that year, Ziff-Davis made the decision to move to New York from Chicago; Palmer promptly contacted William Hamling, who did not want to relocate and suggested that Hamling take over Imagination. Like Palmer, Hamling had made preparations to leave Ziff-Davis by establishing a separate publishing company, Greenleaf Publishing, and in November 1950 Hamling left Ziff-Davis and became Imagination's editor and publisher.[5][8]

In 1954 Hamling started a companion magazine, Imaginative Tales; in addition, his company Greenleaf Publishing was the publisher of Rogue, a men's magazine modelled after Playboy. In 1957 the liquidation of American News Company, a major distributor, meant that many magazines had to scramble to find new distributors. Independent distributors often required that the magazines be monthly, and that they be in a larger format than the digest-size common in science fiction magazines. The larger format required higher revenue to be profitable, but in many cases it proved impossible to attract the additional advertising income that would have kept the magazines afloat. By the end of 1958, many titles had disappeared as a result, with Imagination one of the victims; Hamling closed down both Imagination and its sister magazine to invest the money in Rogue instead. The last issue of Imagination was October 1958, the 63rd issue, while Imaginative Tales, retitled Space Travel, ceased with the November 1958 issue.[9] There was no indication in either magazine that the end had come, though the last issue of Imagination omitted its letter, book review and pen-pal columns, all of which had appeared regularly in prior issues.[10]

Circulation figures were not required to be published annually until the 1960s,[11] so the actual circulation figures are not known. For comparison, the more successful Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which had been launched the previous year, is known to have had a circulation of just under 60,000 copies for its first issue, dated Fall 1949.[12]

The cover story for the first issue was "The Soul Stealers" by Chester S. Geier, a regular in the Ziff-Davis magazines Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures. The story was a science fantasy tale of Leeta, a beautiful woman from another dimension stealing the souls of men to try to save her father. The cover illustration, by Hannes Bok, showed Leeta on her flying steed. Other contributors included Rog Phillips, another prolific magazine author, and Kris Neville, whose first story had been published only the year before.[10] Neville's work appeared regularly in the first few years of the magazine; other prolific contributors included Dwight V. Swain, Daniel F. Galouye and Milton Lesser. Edmond Hamilton's work also appeared frequently towards the end of the magazine's life.[13] The magazine often contained a long novel as the lead attraction.[14]

Imagination is generally thought of by historians of science fiction as one of the weaker magazines of the 1950s, despite its relative longevity. Donald Tuck, in his Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, dismissed the novels it published, saying, "not many were noteworthy, most being in the interplanetary/space opera/adventure field",[14] and Brian Stableford, a science fiction writer and critic, described it as dealing "primarily in routine space opera."[13]James Blish, writing under the pseudonym "William Atheling, Jr.", which he used for some of his critical writing, remarked that it was a "widely unread" magazine.[15] Hamling's editorial policy was consciously slanted against intellectualism. In the November 1951 issue he commented that "science fiction was never meant to be an educational tour de force. The so-called adult story is nothing more than an attempt to show the reader how dumb he is and how smart the editor is." Imagination's approach, he said, was to publish entertainment: "What we need is a little relaxation. And entertaining reading is one way to get it."[1] Some readers agreed with Hamling; a 1952 issue of Rhodomagnetic Digest, a fanzine, contains approving commentary on Hamling's editorial by Gregg Calkins, a fan of the period.[16]

Starting with the April 1951 issue, a regular column on science fiction fandom began, titled "Fandora's Box". It was written by Mari Wolf, an active fan, for five years, and was taken over by Robert Bloch from June 1956 through the end. The column had an excellent reputation, and was one of the few such columns in the professional magazines.[14][17] Every issue carried an editorial, and a letter column appeared in every issue but the very last. A book review column began in June 1953, and appeared in every issue except the last one. It was initially by Mark Reinsberg, and was taken over by Henry Bott in May 1954 after two months in which both reviewers contributed to the column. A "Cosmic Pen Club" column, where fans could post requests for pen-pals, began in February 1957; as with the book reviews it appeared regularly, excepting only the last issue. Beginning in September 1951, the inside front cover was often used for an "Introducing the Author" feature, with short pieces by and about a writer or artist who appeared in the issue. These included photographs of the authors in question, a feature not typically found in other magazines. Among the better-known authors featured were Heinlein, Evan Hunter and Philip K. Dick. "Introducing the Author" skipped four issues from October 1954 to January 1955, and ceased altogether with the April 1956 issue. One issue, May 1953, included pictures from that year's World Science Fiction in Chicago, rather than a feature about an author.[10] The most frequently appearing cover artists were Harold W. McCauley, Lloyd Rognan, Malcolm Smith and William Terry.[10][18]

The December 1952 issue, illustrating the revised cover layout that began with the June 1951 issue. The artist is Malcolm Smith.

Imagination was digest size (7.5 × 5.5 inches or 19.1 × 14.0 cm) for its first 17 issues, and then shrank slightly to a short digest size (7.25 × 5.5 inches or 18.4 × 14.0 cm) for the rest of its run, a further 46 issues. The volume number rose by one at the start of each calendar year, regardless of the number of issues. Volume 1, 1950, contained only two issues; subsequent volumes contained five to twelve issues, depending on frequency of publication. The overall issue number was printed on the spine (an unusual practice) along with the volume number. The first issue had a publication date of October 1950, and the schedule was bimonthly through the September 1952 issue except that June 1951 was followed by September 1951. The next four issues were dated October 1952, December 1952, January 1953 and February 1953, and then a monthly run began with April 1953 that lasted without a break until the July 1955 issue. The next issue was October 1955, which inaugurated another bimonthly period that ran with perfect regularity until the last issue, October 1958. The price remained at 35 cents throughout.

The title of the magazine was initially "Imagination: Stories of Science and Fantasy"; it changed with the October 1955 issue to "Imagination: Science Fiction", though this change was only on the cover and spine and was never reflected on the masthead.[10][14]

The first 28 issues were 166 pages long. The page count dropped to 134 with the April 1954 issue and stayed at that length for the remainder of the run. The cover layout initially strongly resembled that of Other Worlds but was changed with the fifth issue, June 1951, to have a white background banner for the title. This format was retained for the rest of the magazine's life, with occasional slight variations such as using a different color for the banner background. The spine also changed from a colored spine with pale lettering, which was similar to the spine style used by Other Worlds, to a white spine with red or blue lettering.[10][14]

The publisher was Clark Publishing Company for the first two issues. The editor for those issues was Raymond Palmer, but as he was hospitalized much of the work was done by Bea Mahaffey. As a result, these two issues are sometimes indexed with Mahaffey as editor.[19] With the third issue, Greenleaf Publishing Company became the publisher and William Hamling took over as editor, a position he retained throughout the magazine's life.[10]

^Ashley lists Mahaffey as the editor of the first two issues in the appendices to Transformations, p. 329, though in his earlier History of the Science Fiction Magazine, Vol. 3 he lists Palmer as editor. Tuck and Nicholls both list Palmer rather than Mahaffey.

1.
Hannes Bok
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Hannes Bok, pseudonym for Wayne Francis Woodard, was an American artist and illustrator, as well as an amateur astrologer and writer of fantasy fiction and poetry. He painted nearly 150 covers for science fiction, fantasy. Boks work graced the pages of calendars and early fanzines, as well as dust jackets from specialty book publishers like Arkham House, Llewellyn, Shasta Publishers, and Fantasy Press. His paintings achieved a luminous quality through the use of an arduous glazing process, Bok shared one of the inaugural 1953 Hugo Awards for science fiction achievement. Wayne Woodard was born in Kansas City, Missouri and his parents divorced when he was five, and his father and stepmother, strict disciplinarians, discouraged his artistic efforts. Once he graduated high school, in Duluth, Minnesota, Bok cut off contact with his father, there he became active in SF fandom, including the publication and illustration of fanzines. It was in connection with activities that he originated his pseudonym, first Hans, then Hannes. The pseudonym derives from Johann Sebastian Bach, in 1937, Bok moved to Los Angeles, where he met Ray Bradbury. In 1938, he relocated to Seattle – where he worked for the W. P. A. and became acquainted with artists like Mark Tobey and Morris Graves. Bok had corresponded with and had met Maxfield Parrish, and the influence of Parrishs art on Boks is evident in his choice of subject matter, use of color, and application of glazes. In the summer of 1939, Ray Bradbury carried samples of Boks art eastward to introduce his friends work to magazine editors at the first World Science Fiction Convention. This was a move, since Bradbury was a neophyte with no connections to commercial art or the magazine industry. Bradbury was, at the time, a 19-year-old newspaper seller, Bradbury succeeded, Farnsworth Wright, editor of Weird Tales, accepted Boks art, which debuted in the December 1939 issue of Weird Tales. More than 50 issues of the magazine featured Boks pen-and-ink work until March 1954, Bok also executed six color covers for Weird Tales between March 1940 and March 1942. Weird Tales also published five of Boks stories and two of his poems between 1942 and 1951, once he broke through into professional publications, Bok moved to New York City and lived there the rest of his life. Throughout his life, Bok was deeply interested in astrology, as well as in the music of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, with whom Bok had a correspondence. As the years passed, Bok became prone to disagreements with editors over money and artistic issues, he grew reclusive and mystical and he eked out a living, often in near poverty, until his death in 1964. He died, apparently of an attack, at the age of 49

2.
Philip K. Dick
–
Philip Kindred Dick was an American writer, who published works mainly belonging to the genre of science fiction. Born in Illinois before moving to California, Dick began publishing science fiction stories in the 1950s and his 1962 alternate history novel The Man in the High Castle earned Dick early acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel. He followed with science fiction such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. His 1974 novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel, a collection of his non-fiction writing on these themes was published posthumously as The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. He died in 1982 of a stroke, aged 53, in addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. A variety of films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, Paycheck, Next. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923, in 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series. The death of Jane six weeks later, on January 26,1929, profoundly affected Philips life and his family later moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. When Philip was five, his father was transferred to Reno, Nevada, both parents fought for custody of Philip, which was awarded to the mother. Dorothy, determined to raise Philip alone, took a job in Washington, D. C. Philip was enrolled at John Eaton Elementary School, completing the second through fourth grades. His lowest grade was a C in Written Composition, although a teacher remarked that he shows interest and he was educated in Quaker schools. In June 1938, Dorothy and Philip returned to California, Dick stated that he read his first science fiction magazine, Stirring Science Stories in 1940 at the age of twelve. Dick attended Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California and he and fellow science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin were members of the graduating class but did not know each other at the time. After graduation, he attended the University of California, Berkeley. Dick did not declare a major and took classes in history, psychology, philosophy and this question from his early studies persisted as a theme in many of his novels. Dick dropped out because of ongoing anxiety problems, according to his third wife Annes memoir and she also says he disliked the mandatory ROTC training. At Berkeley, Dick befriended poet Robert Duncan and poet and linguist Jack Spicer, Dick claimed to have been host of a classical music program on KSMO Radio in 1947

3.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science-fiction writer. Often called the dean of science writers, his controversial works continue to have an influential effect on the genre. Heinlein became one of the first science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. He was one of the best-selling science-fiction novelists for many decades, and he, Isaac Asimov and he also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices. Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974 and he also anticipated mechanical Computer Aided Design with Drafting Dan and described a modern version of a waterbed in his novel The Door into Summer, though he never patented or built one. In the first chapter of the novel Space Cadet he anticipated the cell-phone,35 years before Motorola invented the technology, several of Heinleins works have been adapted for film and television. Heinlein was born on July 7,1907 to Rex Ivar Heinlein and Bam Lyle Heinlein, in Butler and he was a 6th-generation German-American, a family tradition had it that Heinleins fought in every American war starting with the War of Independence. His childhood was spent in Kansas City, Missouri, Heinleins experience in the U. S. Navy exerted a strong influence on his character and writing. He graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland with the class of 1929 and he was assigned to the new aircraft carrier USS Lexington in 1931, where he worked in radio communications, then in its earlier phases, with the carriers aircraft. The captain of this carrier was Ernest J. King, who served as the Chief of Naval Operations and Commander-in-Chief. Heinlein was frequently interviewed during his later years by historians who asked him about Captain King. Heinlein also served aboard the destroyer USS Roper in 1933 and 1934, reaching the rank of lieutenant. His brother, Lawrence Heinlein, served in the U. S. Army, the U. S. Air Force, and the Missouri National Guard, in 1929, Heinlein married Elinor Curry of Kansas City in Los Angeles, and their marriage lasted about a year. His second marriage in 1932 to Leslyn MacDonald lasted for 15 years, in 1934, Heinlein was discharged from the Navy due to pulmonary tuberculosis. During a lengthy hospitalization, he developed a design for a waterbed, Heinlein supported himself at several occupations, including real estate sales and silver mining, but for some years found money in short supply. Heinlein was active in Upton Sinclairs socialist End Poverty in California movement in the early 1930s, when Sinclair gained the Democratic nomination for Governor of California in 1934, Heinlein worked actively in the campaign. Heinlein himself ran for the California State Assembly in 1938, but was unsuccessful, while not destitute after the campaign—he had a small disability pension from the Navy—Heinlein turned to writing in order to pay off his mortgage. His first published story, Life-Line, was printed in the August 1939 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction, originally written for a contest, it was instead sold to Astounding for significantly more than the contests first-prize payoff

4.
John Wyndham
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Many of his works were set in post-apocalyptic landscapes. Wyndham was born in the village of Dorridge near Knowle, Warwickshire, England, the son of George Beynon Harris, a barrister, and Gertrude Parkes, the daughter of a Birmingham ironmaster. His longest and final stay was at Bedales School near Petersfield in Hampshire, which he left at the age of 18, and where he blossomed and was happy. After leaving school, Wyndham tried several careers, including farming, law, commercial art and advertising, but mostly relied on an allowance from his family. During World War II, Wyndham first served as a censor in the Ministry of Information, then joined the British Army and he participated in the Normandy landings, although he was not involved in the first days of the operation. After the war, Wyndham returned to writing, inspired by the success of his brother and he altered his writing style, and, by 1951, using the John Wyndham pen name for the first time, he wrote the novel The Day of the Triffids. His pre-war writing career was not mentioned in the books publicity, the book proved to be an enormous success and established Wyndham as an important exponent of science fiction. During his lifetime, he wrote and published six more novels under the name John Wyndham, in 1963, he married Grace Isobel Wilson, whom he had known for more than 20 years, the couple remained married until he died. He and Grace lived for years in separate rooms at the Penn Club, London and later lived near Petersfield, Hampshire. He died in 1969, aged 65, at his home in Petersfield, survived by his wife, subsequently, some of his unsold work was published, and his earlier work was re-published. His archive was acquired by Liverpool University, on 24 May 2015 an alley in Hampstead that appears in The Day of the Triffids was formally named Triffid Alley as a memorial to him. The Secret People, as John Beynon Foul Play Suspected, as John Beynon Planet Plane, also known as The Space Machine and Stowaway to Mars. The Day of the Triffids remains his best-known, but some of his readers consider that The Chrysalids was really his best and he also penned several short stories, ranging from hard science fiction to whimsical fantasy. A few have been filmed, Consider Her Ways, Random Quest, Dumb Martian, Jizzle, there is also a radio version of Survival. Most of Wyndhams novels have a contemporary 1950s English middle-class setting, Brian Aldiss, another British science fiction writer, has disparagingly labelled some of them as cozy catastrophes, especially his novel The Day of the Triffids. The critic LJ Hurst dismissed Aldisss accusations, pointing out that in Triffids the main character witnesses several murders, suicides, and misadventures, and is frequently in mortal danger himself. Notes Citations Aldiss, Brian W, Billion year spree, the history of fiction, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 978-0-297-76555-4 Harris. My Brother, John Wyndham, A Memoir, transcribed and ed. David Ketterer, *Foundation, The International Review of Science Fiction*28, 5–50

5.
Amazing Stories
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Amazing Stories is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsbacks Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction, Science fiction stories had made regular appearances in other magazines, including some published by Gernsback, but Amazing helped define and launch a new genre of pulp fiction. Amazing was published, with interruptions, for almost eighty years, going through a half-dozen owners. Gernsback was forced into bankruptcy and lost control of the magazine in 1929, and by 1938 it was purchased by Ziff-Davis, Palmer made the magazine successful though it was not regarded as a quality magazine within the science fiction community. Amazing switched to a digest size format in 1953, shortly before the end of the pulp-magazine era. Ted White took over as editor in 1969, eliminated the reprints and made the magazine respected again, several other owners attempted to create a modern incarnation of the magazine in the following decades, but publication was suspended after the March 2005 issue. A new incarnation appeared in July 2012 as an online magazine, Gernsbacks initial editorial approach was to blend instruction with entertainment, he believed science fiction could educate readers. His audience rapidly showed a preference for implausible adventures, however, despite this, Gernsback had an enormous impact on the field, the creation of a specialist magazine for science fiction spawned an entire genre publishing industry. The letter columns in Amazing, where fans could make contact with other, led to the formation of science fiction fandom. Writers whose first story was published in the magazine include John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Howard Fast, Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, and Thomas M. Disch. Overall, though, Amazing itself was rarely an influential magazine within the genre after the 1920s, by the end of the 19th century, stories centered on scientific inventions, and stories set in the future, were appearing regularly in popular fiction magazines. The market for short stories lent itself to tales of invention in the tradition of Jules Verne, Magazines such as Munseys Magazine and The Argosy, launched in 1889 and 1896 respectively, carried a few science fiction stories each year. In 1908, Hugo Gernsback published the first issue of Modern Electrics and it was an immediate success, and Gernsback began to include articles on imaginative uses of science, such as Wireless on Saturn. In 1920 Gernsback retitled the magazine Science and Invention, and through the early 1920s he published much scientific fiction in its pages, Gernsback had started another magazine called Practical Electrics in 1921. However, in 1926 he decided to go ahead, and ceased publication of The Experimenter to make room in his schedule for a new magazine. The editor of The Experimenter, T. OConor Sloane, became the editor of Amazing Stories, the first issue appeared on 10 March 1926, with a cover date of April 1926. Initially the magazine focussed on reprints, the first original story was “The Man From the Atom ” by G. Peyton Wertenbaker in the May 1926 issue, in the August issue, new stories were noted with an asterisk in the table of contents. The editorial work was largely done by Sloane, but Gernsback retained final say over the fiction content, Two consultants, Conrad A. Brandt and Wilbur C

6.
Hugo Gernsback
–
Hugo Gernsback, born Hugo Gernsbacher, was a Luxembourgish-American inventor, writer, editor, and magazine publisher, best known for publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with the novelists H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, in his honour, annual awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention are named the Hugos. Gernsback was born in 1884 in Bonnevoie in Luxembourg, to Berta, a housewife, and Moritz Gernsbacher, Gernsback emigrated to the United States in 1904 and later became a naturalized citizen. He married three times, to Rose Harvey in 1906, Dorothy Kantrowitz in 1921, and Mary Hancher in 1951. In 1925, Hugo founded radio station WRNY which broadcast from the 18th floor of The Roosevelt Hotel in New York City and was involved in the first television broadcasts and he is also considered a pioneer in amateur radio. Before helping to create science fiction, Gernsback was an entrepreneur in the industry, importing radio parts from Europe to the United States. In April 1908 he founded Modern Electrics, the worlds first magazine about both electronics and radio, called wireless at the time. While the cover of the magazine itself states it was a catalog, most historians note that it contained articles, features, under its auspices, in January 1909, he founded the Wireless Association of America, which had 10,000 members within a year. In 1912, Gernsback said that he estimated 400,000 people in the U. S. were involved in amateur radio, in 1913, he founded a similar magazine, The Electrical Experimenter, which became Science and Invention in 1920. He died at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City on August 19,1967, Gernsback started the modern genre of science fiction in 1926 by founding the first magazine dedicated to it, Amazing Stories. The inaugural April issue comprised a one-page editorial and reissues of six stories and he said he became interested in the concept after reading a translation of the work of Percival Lowell as a child. His idea of a science fiction story was 75 percent literature interwoven with 25 percent science. He also played a key role in starting science fiction fandom, so, the science fiction fans began to organize, and became aware of themselves as a movement, a social force, this was probably decisive for the subsequent history of the genre. He also created the term “science fiction”, though he preferred the term scientifiction, in 1929, he lost ownership of his first magazines after a bankruptcy lawsuit. There is some debate whether this process was genuine, manipulated by publisher Bernarr Macfadden. After losing control of Amazing Stories, Gernsback founded two new science magazines, Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories. Gernsback returned in 1952–53 with Science-Fiction Plus, Gernsback was noted for sharp business practices, and for paying his writers extremely low fees or not paying them at all. H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith referred to him as Hugo the Rat, Gernsback wrote fiction, including the novel Ralph 124C 41+ in 1911, the title is a pun on the phrase one to foresee for many

7.
Evanston, Illinois
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It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan and is the home of Northwestern University. The boundaries of the city of Evanston are coterminous with those of the former Evanston Township, prior to the 1830s, the area now occupied by Evanston was mainly uninhabited, consisting largely of wetlands and swampy forest. However, Potawatomi Indians used trails along higher lying ridges that ran in a general direction through the area. French explorers referred to the area as Grosse Pointe after a point of land jutting into Lake Michigan about 13 miles north of the mouth of the Chicago River. The area remained sparsely settled, supporting some farming and lumber activity on some of the higher ground. The 1850 census shows a few hundred settlers in this township, in 1851, a group of Methodist business leaders founded Northwestern University and Garrett Biblical Institute. They chose a bluffed and wooded site along the lake as Northwesterns home, purchasing several hundred acres of land from Dr. John Foster, a Chicago farm owner. In 1854, the founders of Northwestern submitted to the county judge their plans for a city to be named Evanston after John Evans, in 1857, the request was granted. The township of Evanston was split off from Ridgeville Township, at approximately the same time, the nine founders, including John Evans, Orrington Lunt, and Andrew Brown, hoped their university would attain high standards of intellectual excellence. Today these hopes have been fulfilled, as Northwestern consistently ranks with the best of the nations universities, Evanston was formally incorporated as a town on December 29,1863, but declined in 1869 to become a city despite the Illinois legislature passing a bill for that purpose. Evanston expanded after the Civil War with the annexation of the village of North Evanston, finally, in early 1892, following the annexation of the village of South Evanston, voters elected to organize as a city. The 1892 boundaries are largely those that exist today, during the 1960s, Northwestern University changed the citys shoreline by adding a 74-acre lakefill. In 1939, Evanston hosted the first NCAA basketball championship final at Northwestern Universitys Patten Gymnasium, in August 1954, Evanston hosted the second assembly of the World Council of Churches, still the only WCC assembly to have been held in the United States. President Dwight Eisenhower welcomed the delegates, and Dag Hammarskjöld, secretary-general of the United Nations, Evanston first received power in April 1893. Many people lined the streets on Emerson St. where the first appearance of lights were lined and turned on. Evanston is the birthplace of Tinkertoys, and Evanston, along with Ithaca, New York, Two Rivers, Wisconsin, Evanston was the home of the Clayton Mark and Company, which for many years supplied the most jobs. Evanston was a dry community from 1858 until 1972, when the City Council voted to allow restaurants, in 1984, the Council voted to allow retail liquor outlets within the city limits. According to the 2010 census, Evanston has an area of 7.802 square miles

8.
Cincinnati
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Cincinnati is a city in the U. S. state of Ohio that serves as county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the side of the confluence of the Licking with the Ohio River. With a population of 298,550, Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and its metropolitan statistical area is the 28th-largest in the United States and the largest centered in Ohio. The city is part of the larger Cincinnati–Middletown–Wilmington combined statistical area. In the 19th century, Cincinnati was an American boomtown in the heart of the country, it rivaled the larger cities in size. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was listed among the top 10 U. S and it was by far the largest city in the west. By the end of the 19th century, with the shift from steamboats to railroads drawing off freight shipping, trade patterns had altered and Cincinnatis growth slowed considerably. Cincinnati is home to two sports teams, the Cincinnati Reds, the oldest franchise in Major League Baseball. The University of Cincinnati, founded in 1819, is one of the 50 largest in the United States, Cincinnati is known for its historic architecture. In the late 1800s, Cincinnati was commonly referred to as Paris of America, due mainly to such ambitious projects as the Music Hall, Cincinnatian Hotel. The original surveyor, John Filson, named it Losantiville, in 1790, Arthur St. Ethnic Germans were among the early settlers, migrating from Pennsylvania and the backcountry of Virginia and Tennessee. General David Ziegler succeeded General St. Clair in command at Fort Washington, after the conclusion of the Northwest Indian Wars and removal of Native Americans to the west, he was elected as the mayor of Cincinnati in 1802. Cincinnati was incorporated as a city in 1819, exporting pork products and hay, it became a center of pork processing in the region. From 1810 to 1830 its population tripled, from 9,642 to 24,831. Completion of the Miami and Erie Canal in 1827 to Middletown, Ohio further stimulated businesses, the city had a labor shortage until large waves of immigration by Irish and Germans in the late 1840s. The city grew rapidly over the two decades, reaching 115,000 persons by 1850. Construction on the Miami and Erie Canal began on July 21,1825, the first section of the canal was opened for business in 1827. In 1827, the canal connected Cincinnati to nearby Middletown, by 1840, during this period of rapid expansion and prominence, residents of Cincinnati began referring to the city as the Queen City

9.
Playboy
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Playboy is an American mens lifestyle and entertainment magazine. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, with a presence in nearly every medium. In addition to the magazine in the United States, special nation-specific versions of Playboy are published worldwide. The magazine has a history of publishing short stories by notable novelists such as Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, Saul Bellow, Chuck Palahniuk, P. G. Wodehouse, Haruki Murakami, the magazine generally reflects a liberal editorial stance, although it often interviews conservative celebrities. After a year-long removal of most nude photos in Playboy magazine and he formed HMH Publishing Corporation, and recruited his friend Eldon Sellers to find investors. Hefner eventually raised just over $8,000, including from his brother and mother. However, the publisher of a mens adventure magazine, Stag, contacted Hefner. Hefner, his wife Millie, and Sellers met to seek a new name, considering Top Hat, Gentleman, Sir, Satyr, Pan, the first issue, in December 1953, was undated, as Hefner was unsure there would be a second. He produced it in his Hyde Park kitchen, the first centerfold was Marilyn Monroe, although the picture used originally was taken for a calendar rather than for Playboy. Hefner chose what he deemed the sexiest image, a previously unused nude study of Marilyn stretched with an arm on a red velvet background with closed eyes. The heavy promotion centered around Marilyns nudity on the calendar, together with the teasers in marketing. The first issue sold out in weeks, copies of the first issue in mint to near mint condition sold for over $5,000 in 2002. The novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, was serialized in the March, April, an urban legend started about Hefner and the Playmate of the Month because of markings on the front covers of the magazine. From 1955 to 1979, the P in Playboy had stars printed in or around the letter. The legend stated that this was either a rating that Hefner gave to the Playmate according to how attractive she was, the stars, between zero and 12, actually indicated the domestic or international advertising region for that printing. From 1966 to 1976, Robie Macauley was the Fiction Editor at Playboy, P. Donleavy, as well as poetry by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Macauley also contributed all of the popular Ribald Classics series published between January 1978 and March 1984, christie Hefner, daughter of the founder Hugh Hefner, joined Playboy in 1975 and became head of the company in 1988

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The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
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The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a US fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Fantasy House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivaks Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivaks existing mystery title, Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine. The first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was made to include science fiction as well as fantasy. F&SF quickly became one of the magazines in the science fiction and fantasy field, with a reputation for publishing literary material. Mills was responsible for publishing Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, and the first of Brian Aldisss Hothouse stories. The first few issues featured cover art by George Salter, Mercury Presss art director, but other artists soon began to appear, including Chesley Bonestell, Kelly Freas. In 1962, Mills was succeeded as editor by Avram Davidson, at the start of 1966 Edward Ferman was listed as editor, and four years later he acquired the magazine from his father and moved the editorial offices to his house in Connecticut. In 1991 he turned the editorship over to Kristine Kathryn Rusch, in the mid-1990s circulation began to decline, most magazines were losing subscribers and F&SF was no exception. Gordon Van Gelder replaced Rusch in 1997, and bought the magazine from Ferman in 2001, but circulation continued to fall, charles Coleman Finlay took over from Van Gelder as editor in 2015. The first magazine dedicated to fantasy, Weird Tales, appeared in 1923, it was followed in 1926 by Amazing Stories, by the end of the 1930s, the genre was flourishing in the United States, nearly twenty new sf and fantasy titles appearing between 1938 and 1941. These were all pulp magazines, which meant that despite the occasional high-quality story, in 1941, Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine appeared, edited by Fred Dannay and focusing on detective fiction. The magazine was published in digest format, rather than pulp, Dannay attempted to avoid the sensationalist fiction appearing in the pulps, and soon made the magazine a success. In the early 1940s Anthony Boucher, a writer of fantasy and sf and also of mystery stories. Boucher also knew J. Francis McComas, an editor who shared his interest in fantasy, by 1944 McComas and Boucher became interested in the idea of a fantasy companion to Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, and spoke to Dannay about it. Dannay was interested in the idea, but paper was scarce because of World War II, in January 1946, Boucher and McComas went to New York and met with Spivak, who let them know later in the year that he wanted to go ahead. At Spivaks request they began acquiring material for the new magazine, including a new story by Raymond Chandler, lovecraft, John Dickson Carr, and Robert Bloch. Spivak initially planned the first issue for early 1947, but repeatedly delayed the launch because of poor sales of digest magazines. He also suggested that it should be priced at 35 cents an issue, in May 1949 Spivak suggested a new title, The Magazine of Fantasy, and in August a press release announced that the magazine would appear in October

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Fantastic Adventures
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Fantastic Adventures was an American pulp fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1953 by Ziff-Davis. It was initially edited by Raymond A. Palmer, who was also the editor of Amazing Stories, the first nine issues were in bedsheet format, but in June 1940 the magazine switched to a standard pulp size. It was almost cancelled at the end of 1940, but the October 1940 issue enjoyed unexpectedly good sales, by May 1941 the magazine was on a regular monthly schedule. Much of the material was written by a group of writers under both their own names and house names. The cover art, like those of other pulps of the era. In 1949 Palmer left Ziff-Davis and was replaced by Howard Browne, Browne briefly managed to improve the quality of the fiction in Fantastic Adventures, and the period around 1951 has been described as the magazines heyday. Browne lost interest when his plan to take Amazing Stories upmarket collapsed, the March 1953 issue of Fantastic Adventures was the last. By the end of the 1930s the field was undergoing its first boom, gernsback lost control of Amazing Stories in 1929, it was sold to Teck Publications, and then in 1938 it was acquired by Ziff-Davis. Fantastic Adventures was initially published in format, the same size as the early sf magazines such as Amazing. It started as a bimonthly, but in January 1940 began a monthly schedule, sales were weaker than for Amazing, however, and with the June issue the schedule reverted to bimonthly. The size was reduced to a standard pulp format, since that was cheaper to produce. Sales did not improve, and Ziff-Davis planned to make the October issue the last one. That issue carried Robert Moore Williams Jongor of Lost Land, and had a cover by J. Allen St. John, the combination proved to be so popular that October sales were twice the August figures. This convinced Ziff-Davis that the magazine was viable, and it was restarted in January 1941—as a bimonthly at first, Howard Browne took over as editor of both Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures in 1950. He let William Hamling take responsibility for both titles, and the quality declined, the move from the pulp format to digests was well under way in the early 1950s, and with Fantastics success there was little reason to keep Fantastic Adventures going. Palmers goal for Fantastic Adventures was to create a magazine that published fantasy fiction but was the equal of the quality magazines—the slicks. Palmer probably acquired some fantasy-oriented material that had submitted to Amazing Stories. Features included a quiz, a profile, and a comic strip, titled Ray Holmes, Scientific Detective

12.
Daniel F. Galouye
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Daniel Francis Galouye was an American science fiction writer. During the 1950s and 1960s, he contributed novelettes and short stories to various digest size science fiction magazines, sometimes writing under the pseudonym Louis G. Daniels, born in New Orleans, Galouye graduated from Louisiana State University and then worked as a reporter for several newspapers. During World War II, he served in the US Navy as an instructor and test pilot, on December 26,1945, he married Carmel Barbara Jordan. From the 1940s until his retirement in 1967, he was on the staff of The States-Item and he lived in New Orleans but also had a summer home across Lake Ponchartrain at St. Tammany Parish in Covington, Louisiana. Galouyes first published fiction, the novelette Rebirth, appeared in the March 1952 issue of Imagination and his work appeared in many magazines during this era including Galaxy Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Between 1961 and 1973, Galouye wrote five novels, notably Simulacron Three, basis of the movie The Thirteenth Floor and his first novel, Dark Universe was nominated for a Hugo. According to his obituary in the New Orleans States-Item, Galouye. was a Navy pilot during WWII from 1942 to 1946. He graduated from Pensacola Naval Air School, held the rank of lieutenant and was for a time during his years in charge of a training school in Hawaii for Navy airmen. Immediately after release from the Navy, he began his career with The States-Item as a reporter, then as a copy editor and he later was named associate editor of that department, retiring in 1967. His retirement was due to failing health, which was in turn related to injuries sustained during his Navy service and his health continued to decline until his early death at age 56. He died in New Orleans Veterans Hospital and is interred at Covington Cemetery #1 in Covington, richard Dawkins, the British atheist and zoologist, regards Galouye as one of his favorite fiction writers. In 2007, Galouye was the recipient of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, Galouye was named 6 July 2007 by Barry N. Malzberg and Gordon Van Gelder, speaking on behalf of themselves and the other two judges, Martin H. Greenberg and Mike Resnick

Hannes Bok, pseudonym for Wayne Francis Woodard (July 2, 1914 – April 11, 1964), was an American artist and …

Hannes Bok

Bok's "complete novel" Starstone World was the cover story for the Summer 1942 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly. Starstone World has never been published in book form; it is believed that magazine text was cut for publication, and Bok's full-length manuscript has been lost.

Cover of the May 1941 issue of Cosmic Science-Fiction, by Bok.

Bok's "Beauty" was the cover story for the October 1942 issue of Future, and Bok himself painted the cover illustration

Gernsback watching a television broadcast by his station WRNY on the cover of his Radio News (Nov 1928)

Gernsback's second novel, Baron Münchausen's Scientific Adventures, was serialized in Amazing in 1928, with the opening installment taking the February cover.

Gernsback's short story "The Cosmatomic Flyer", under the transparently pseudonymous "Greno Gashbuck" byline, was cover-featured in the debut issue of Gernsback's Science-Fiction Plus in 1953, illustrated by Alex Schomburg